Monday, September 17, 2012

Val d'isere World Cup

Team Lapierre International rider Cam Cole takes top-10 finish at the sixth round of the 2012 UCI Downhill MTB World Cup series held at Val d'Isére, France, at the weekend – just over two seconds behind race winner and fellow Kiwi Brook MacDonald.

Cam Cole, of Christchurch, New Zealand, went into the final run at Val d'Isére as the hot favourite for the win after qualifying fastest on the short, steep and intense course in France. His eighth place puts him into 12th overall in the series.

Just over two seconds separated him from eventual race winner Brook MacDonald, of Napier, New Zealand, but as Cole confesses his three or four small mistakes add up to that difference. Aaron Gwin, of USA, finished fifth to extend his lead in the series beyond attack, taking the 2012 World Cup title with one round to go.

"My qualifier was nothing amazing it was just a smooth run. This track was tough – some parts of it were very fast and other parts you had to slow right down and be very precise. I think in my quali I judged my speed quite well, but not today," he confesses.

Cole said he made some mistakes in line selection for his final run. The course was made up of a lot of loose rocks and through the week the rocks got cleaned off the main lines and revealed some grippy dirt underneath, but the rain from Saturday changed those lines again.

"The third corner I came into had heaps of rocks sitting in the mainline – it had started to fall to bits. There was a lot of debris in the lines I was using and that part of the track is quite narrow, so I couldn't see my fast lines," he explains.

MacDonald's winning time of 2:19.478 shows a course that is brutally punishing of mistakes as Cole discovered.

"I lost that time early on at the first split, which was 40 seconds of track. I lost 1.3 seconds there – that's a lot to lose straight away."

Cole accumulated 50 points for qualifying first and 85 for finishing eighth bumping him up to 12th overall, despite having missed the opening round of the series due to an injury.

Cole said he was just making the most of every race as a bigger goal loomed: the UCI World Championships, which would take place in Leogang, Austria, from August 31 to September 2.

"Qualifying first this weekend is a good stepping stone to the World Champs, which has been a goal of mine since I started training in November last year. I know I have the speed, we just need to keep working on the bike, my strength, my fitness and conditioning," he considers.

"I have 3-4 weeks now to get those things in line so when I get there I will have the best chance that I can."

Cole will be based in Morzine, France, in the lead-up to the 2012 World Championships.

"It's similar dirt and riding conditions. It's at 800m so it's good for training and you can ride up to 1000m. It's going to be good for the body and it's like a second home for me – I know where the good food is and it is comfortable. I am looking forward to building on my preparation from there," he offers.

Cole said he felt like he had done a lot of racing in a short space of time and was looking forward to taking a week off and coming into the World Championships "fresh".

Cole said he had trained to win races this year, which he said was quite a different approach to training to finish top five.

"When I started training in November I really had a desire to win races. I was training to win races and I was determined to do that," he said.

"Every day I went training that was the goal. I was a little bit behind in the beginning as my arm healed, but after I finished fifth in that first race I thought it would not be long before I won. Qualifying first was a boost in confidence for me, but I don't think it was meant to be for me today," conceded Cole.

Cole will next race at the 2012 UCI World Downhill Championships to be held at Leogang, Austria, from August 31 to September 2, 2012.

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6'2, 89kg, 25 years old. I was born in Waitara, Taranaki, New Zealand. I went to St Pauls Collegiate high school in Hamilton where I finished 3 levels of NCEA. I love riding all kinds of bikes and raced BMX from the tender age of 3 until I was 17, then downhill bikes took over from the age of 16. My first professional mountain bike team I raced for was Maxxis and then spent two years with Lapierre a French based team. I currently live in Christchurch with my fiancee Amy and flat mates where we have lots of fun riding bikes and going on about life.